Bone morphogenetic protein 4 promotes craniofacial neural crest induction from human pluripotent stem cells

Bone morphogenetic protein 4 promotes craniofacial neural crest induction from human pluripotent stem cells.

Neural crest (NC) cells are a group of cells located in the neural folds at the boundary between the neural and epidermal ectoderm. Cranial NC cells migrate to the branchial arches and give rise to the majority of the craniofacial region, whereas trunk and tail NC cells contribute to the heart, enteric ganglia of the gut, melanocytes, sympathetic ganglia, and adrenal chromaffin cells. Positiona...

Generating trunk neural crest from human pluripotent stem cells

Neural crest cells (NCC) are stem cells that generate different lineages, including neuroendocrine, melanocytic, cartilage, and bone. The differentiation potential of NCC varies according to the level from which cells emerge along the neural tube. For example, only anterior "cranial" NCC form craniofacial bone, whereas solely posterior "trunk" NCC contribute to sympathoadrenal cells. Importantl...

Bone morphogenetic protein-4 promotes induction of cardiomyocytes from human embryonic stem cells in serum-based embryoid body development.

Cardiomyocytes derived from human embryonic stem (ES) cells are a potential source for cell-based therapy for heart diseases. We studied the effect of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-4 in the presence of fetal bovine serum (FBS) on cardiac induction from human H1 ES cells during embryoid body (EB) development. Suspension culture for 4 days with 20% FBS produced the best results for the differe...

Osteogenesis from Pluripotent Stem Cells: Neural Crest or Mesodermal Origin?

Feeder-free derivation of neural crest progenitor cells from human pluripotent stem cells.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have great potential for studying human embryonic development, for modeling human diseases in the dish and as a source of transplantable cells for regenerative applications after disease or accidents. Neural crest (NC) cells are the precursors for a large variety of adult somatic cells, such as cells from the peripheral nervous system and glia, melanocytes a...